Another project that needed attending to this spring was the protection of Alan’s yurt cover. The cover was originally made from a reclaimed billboard, sewn into yurt-cover-shape and then painted grey with regular exterior latex house paint. That was in 2009, so it really has lasted a long time, all things considered. Last summer, we observed that the roof material had developed pinprick holes everywhere, and water was getting in. By this past winter, it was possible to see daylight through the roof in the thinner areas.
So we brainstormed solutions, from “buy a new cover” (expensive) down to “repaint it and hope that helps” and settled on repainting it — but with an elastomeric roof coating, the kind of thing used on flat vinyl roofs.
It took three people one entire day — also not bad for a project on this scale.
It is very white now, but we are pleased to report that daylight no longer gets through the roof! As soon as it ever rains again, we’ll know if water can still get in, but I’m betting this worked. It should extend the life of the cover by a few years, hopefully long enough for us to be able to invest in a new one!